It’s cold and white outside. Our wood stove is raging. The cats are lazing. The perfect time for a book!

It felt a little decadent, though, to start my evening reading right after lunch. So, instead, I dug through my notes and pulled out some must-read recommendations for you.

I adore Maria Vale’s The Legend of All Wolves series, and Season of the Wolf is no exception. Vale does an astonishingly good job creating a world so vivid you can almost taste it. Her shifters are wolf-rough but also so lovable you can’t put the book down. Unlike some of the other installments, though, I feel like this isn’t the best entrance point. So, if you’re new to Vale, start on book one.

If you need something lighter and sweeter, T.S. Joyce’s A Shifter for Christmas will hit the spot. The sure antidote to family holiday difficulties (or, in this year’s case, the antidote to holiday-without-family difficulties). 99 cents at the moment or free in Kindle Unlimited.

I didn’t realize Seanan McGuire’s In an Absent Dream was book four in a series when I picked it up…and it didn’t matter. This is a tearjerker of a beautiful, richly written book about visiting the Goblin Market and deciding whether or not to stay. It feels like the old fantasy I grew up with — Five Children and It and Narnia and the Wizard of Oz — but written so sparely and tightly that I wanted much more. Read it!

Olivia Atwater’s Half a Soul is a great combination of light magic (fae) and a Regency romance. From the unique and interesting setup to the lovable characters, I was hooked. This is a little heavy on mystery, though, so you might not be as pleased if you’re looking for pure fantasy romance.

Michelle Diener’s novella, The Rising Wave, is the prelude to The Turncoat King and really, really should be read first. As long as you do so, this is a great fantasy romance series. I especially enjoyed the worldbuilding, based on sewing spells into fabric that then has to touch someone’s skin in order to work. The anthology and standalones are all free to borrow with Kindle Unlimited.

Heidi Heilig’s The Girl from Everywhere has a different feel from the books above, but is equally delightful. Time travel! Sailing ship! Problematic father! Unlikely crew of found family! Fun history of Hawaii! You wouldn’t think all those things fit together, but they really do.

I hope that’s enough to fill a few snow days for you. Happy reading!